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This morning I came across this touching story published in Friday's Chronicle of Philanthropy. The story begins by stating that the biggest danger for people living with severe mental illnesses is not navigating the health-care system or finding a good therapist, but living in isolation. Because people with mental illnesses no longer spend much time in hospitals, they end up living alone. According to Kenneth Dudek, president of Fountain House, a New York charity that helps mentally ill people live independently, living in isolation makes the illness worse and the patients do not get the help they need.

This is the first time the prize has been awarded to a mental-health organization. According to Hawley Hilton McAuliffe, a member of the prize's jury and granddaughter of Conrad Hilton, the organizations were chosen because mental health has not received much attention despite the prevalence of the problem. Said McAuliffe: "It's a humanitarian crisis at this point, especially here in the United States. It's one area that has not been addressed by many organizations."

McAuliffe revealed that as the prize jury deliberated about this year's award, it considered Fountain House's success at giving mentally ill people opportunities to find fellowship. It also considered the recent spate of mass shootings by mentally ill individuals, in particular the spree committed by 22-year-old Elliott Rodger, who killed six people and injured 13 others near the campus of the University of California at Santa Barbara in May. The Chornicle quotes McAuliffe as saying, "Here was this isolated individual who had no sense of community. Wouldn't Fountain House have been a good resource for him?"

The truth is, many mentally ill people are in need of similar resources. The Chronicle states it well:

In the United States alone, 13.6 million people live with a serious mental illness like major depression, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. And the World Health Organization estimates 450 million people worldwide suffer from such illnesses. Three-quarters of chronic mental illnesses begin by the age of 24, but people sometimes wait decades to seek treatment. Most alarming, nearly half of all homeless adults in America has a severe mental illness.

That is a sobering statistic. I applaud Fountain House and Clubhouse International for the assistance they give to some of the suffering people.